ON ORNITHOLOGY. 417 



II. 



I AM in a position to furnish some notes on our European 

 eagles which may not, perhaps, be wholly devoid of interest ; 

 and 1 will begin with the " Stein " Eagle, as it is the species 

 that I have chiefly studied. 



The "Stein" Eagle (Aquila fulva) is now-a-days considered 

 one of the rarest raptorial birds of our country, and even in 

 the works of the greatest naturalists one may read that this 

 powerful eagle has been driven from all other districts and 

 is now to be found almost exclusively in the Alps. These 

 statements I dispute. The " Stein " Eagle has not yet become 

 so uncommon, although there are but few places sufficiently 

 quiet for it to breed in. Among the inaccessible precipices 

 of many of the Alpine valleys its nest is safe from all 

 disturbance ; and it may here and there be found breeding in 

 certain of the ravines of Switzerland, Tyrol, Salzburg, and 

 Styria. These nests are heard of, as the mighty bird of 

 prey carries on its depredations over a large tract of 

 country, and it is therefore imagined that the Alps are 

 the only localities in which it occurs. This is, however, 

 quite incorrect, for though, thanks to the inaccessible preci- 

 pices, isolated nests do exist in the Alpine regions, still the 

 number of the " Stein" Eagles which specially frequent those 

 mountains is extremely small, much smaller than it is in 

 those lowlands that are tolerably well fitted for shy birds to 

 live in. 



In the Alps every peasant is a practised shot, and every 

 sportsman considers the eagle the noblest of game, so that 

 wherever the mighty robber appears he is exposed to the 



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